UFC HEADS TO ALBUQUERQUE SATURDAY, JUNE 7 AT TINGLEY COLISEUM

Apr 17, 2014

(PRESS RELEASE) -- Las Vegas –The Ultimate Fighting Championship®
will make its highly anticipated debut in Albuquerque on Saturday,
June 7 at Tingley Coliseum. In the five-round main event, former
UFC lightweight champion Benson
Henderson will take on the surging Rustam
Khabilov, a winner of six straight.

Owning wins over some of the sport’s top names such as Josh
Thomson, Gilbert
Melendez and Frankie
Edgar (twice), Henderson (20-3, fighting out of Glendale,
Ariz.) is eager to reclaim the lightweight crown. To do so, he must
diffuse the relentless Khabilov (17-1, fighting out of Albuquerque,
N.M.). Nicknamed “Tiger”, the 27-year-old Khabilov trains at the
famed Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA gym in Albuquerque and has reeled off
three straight wins to start his UFC career. Now he’ll meet the
toughest test of his young career against the former UFC
lightweight champion.

In the night’s co-main event, Albuquerque’s own Diego
Sanchez (26-7) will compete in front of his hometown fans in a
potential Fight of the Year candidate against Ross “The Real Deal”
Pearson (17-6-1NC, fighting out of San Diego). Plus, flyweight
sensation and hometown superstar John Dodson
(16-6, fighting out of Albuquerque, N.M.) looks to secure a title
shot when he collides with No.4 flyweight contender John Moraga
(14-2, fighting out of Phoenix, Ariz.).

If that wasn’t enough, Mexican bantamweight star and
Jackson-Winkeljohn product Erik “Goyito” Perez takes on Bryan
Caraway in a pivotal fight between rising title contenders.

Also scheduled for the card:

Bobby
Voelker (24-11, fighting out of Kansas City, Mo.) takes on
Lance
Benoist (6-2, fighting out of St. Louis, Mo.) in a welterweight
collision.

A bantamweight bout between Sergio
Pettis (10-1, fighting out of Milwaukee, Wis.) and up-and-comer
Yaotzin
Meza (19-9, fighting out of Glendale, Ariz.)

Tickets for UFC FIGHT NIGHT: HENDERSON vs. KHABILOV, go on sale
Friday, April 18 at 10 a.m. MT and are priced at $175, $125, $75
and $50. Tickets are available for purchase at
www.ticketmaster.com. To charge by phone with a major credit card,
call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Ticket sales are limited to
eight (8) per person. Ticket prices do not include applicable
service charges.

UFC Fight Club® members will have the opportunity to purchase
tickets to this event Wednesday, April 9 at 10 a.m. MT via the
website www.ufcfightclub.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale
will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Thursday, April 10
starting at 10 a.m. MT. To access this presale, users must register
for the UFC newsletter through UFC.com.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: HENDERSON vs. KHABILOV will air live on FOX Sports
1 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Saturday, June 7, with the prelims
kicking off the evening on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

For more information or current fight news, visit www.ufc.com. All
bouts live and subject to change.

About the Ultimate Fighting Championship® Owned and operated by
Zuffa, LLC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®) is the
premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization and largest
pay-per-view event provider in the world. Headquartered in Las
Vegas with offices in London, Toronto, Beijing, Singapore and Sao
Paulo, UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that
consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around
the globe. UFC programming is broadcast in over 145 countries to
800+ million TV households worldwide in 28 different languages. The
UFC has a multi-year broadcast agreement with FOX in the U.S.,
which annually includes four live events broadcast on the FOX
network, as well as The Ultimate Fighter® reality television show
and thousands of hours of programming on FOX Sports 1 and FOX
Sports 2. In 2014, UFC launched UFC FIGHT PASS™, a digital
subscription service with exclusive live events, thousands of
fights on-demand and original content. The UFC organization also
licenses over 100 UFC GYM® locations, and owns UFC.TV® (offering
live event broadcasts and video on-demand around the world), UFC
FIT™ (an in-home fitness and nutrition program), UFC Magazine, and
has a videogame franchise with EA SPORTS, UFC Fight Club®, UFC Fan
Expo®, Octagon™ branded apparel, best-selling DVDs and Blu-rays and
Topps Trading Cards. For more information, visit www.UFC.com and
follow UFC at www.Facebook.com/UFC and on Twitter and Instagram:
@UFC.